When choosing an exercise program, you must first identify your goals. While it is important to do a wide variety of activities, different forms of exercise work different areas of your body and provide different health benefits. Determining whether you want to lose weight, manage a specific condition such as heart disease, increase muscle strength, improve muscular endurance or enhance flexibility, will help you choose the right program.
Muscular Endurance
When you exercise your muscles, you can train in a way that either improves muscular strength or muscular endurance. Muscular strength refers to the ability of a muscle or muscle group to exert a maximal force against resistance, one time through a full range of motion Strong muscles give you the power to lift items, carry out daily activities and they take pressure off your joints. Muscular endurance refers to your ability to perform numerous repetitions against sub-maximum resistance over a given period of time, states the Dixie State College of Utah. Muscular endurance allows you to perform various activities in your daily life, a physical job or participate in sports or athletic hobbies without getting fatigued quickly.
Improving Muscular Endurance
Since muscular endurance is about the ability to sustain activity, you want to follow certain training principals. Jessica Matthews of the American Council on Exercise, recommends using lighter weights and performing a higher amount of reps. A general goal is to do two to three sets of 12 to 16 repetitions of each exercise, with only a 30 second rest in between sets. You do want to use a weight that is heavy enough to cause fatigue on the 12th to 16th repetition. Weights that are too light will not help you reach your goal because they will not challenge your muscles enough.
Types of Exercises
There are many ways to exercise to improve muscular endurance. You can use machines, cables, free weights, tubing, medicine balls and even your own body weight. Squats, lunges, pushups, chinups and dips can all make you stronger without having to use equipment. These types of exercises will not only improve endurance, but can also aid weight loss, because they improve your muscle mass, which in turn, increases the number of calories your body burns during activity and at rest, reports Cleveland Clinic. Muscle endurance exercises can improve bone strength, reduce the risk of a fall or injury and enhance your overall sense of well-being.
Training Principals
Muscle endurance exercises are not the same as aerobic or cardiovascular exercise. In fact, in some instances, combining the two can interfere with athletic performance. The Dixie State College of Utah notes that in several research studies when distance runners trained with weighted wrist bands, anklets and belts, they did not perform as well as runners who did not wear weights in training. When using weights you need to move slowly and with control, because swinging weights can injure your joints. Since it takes your muscles about 48 hours to recover from lifting, avoid working the same muscle groups two days in a row. If you want to work out everyday, focus on your legs one day and your upper body the next. Aim to do one muscle endurance exercise for each major muscle group, two to three days a week.
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